Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Celtic Fairy Tales Read Online Free PDF
Author: Joseph Jacobs
on the morrow.
    Guleesh and the priest sat up the entire night with her, waiting
till she should awake, and they between hope and unhope, between
expectation of saving her and fear of hurting her.
    She awoke at last when the sun had gone half its way through the
heavens. She rubbed her eyes and looked like a person who did not
know where she was. She was like one astonished when she saw Guleesh
and the priest in the same room with her, and she sat up doing her
best to collect her thoughts.
    The two men were in great anxiety waiting to see would she speak, or
would she not speak, and when they remained silent for a couple of
minutes, the priest said to her: "Did you sleep well, Mary?"
    And she answered him: "I slept, thank you."
    No sooner did Guleesh hear her talking than he put a shout of joy
out of him, and ran over to her and fell on his two knees, and said:
"A thousand thanks to God, who has given you back the talk; lady of
my heart, speak again to me."
    The lady answered him that she understood it was he who boiled that
drink for her, and gave it to her; that she was obliged to him from
her heart for all the kindness he showed her since the day she first
came to Ireland, and that he might be certain that she never would
forget it.
    Guleesh was ready to die with satisfaction and delight. Then they
brought her food, and she ate with a good appetite, and was merry
and joyous, and never left off talking with the priest while she was
eating.
    After that Guleesh went home to his house, and stretched himself on
the bed and fell asleep again, for the force of the herb was not all
spent, and he passed another day and a night sleeping. When he woke
up he went back to the priest's house, and found that the young lady
was in the same state, and that she was asleep almost since the time
that he left the house.
    He went into her chamber with the priest, and they remained watching
beside her till she awoke the second time, and she had her talk as
well as ever, and Guleesh was greatly rejoiced. The priest put food
on the table again, and they ate together, and Guleesh used after
that to come to the house from day to day, and the friendship that
was between him and the king's daughter increased, because she had
no one to speak to except Guleesh and the priest, and she liked
Guleesh best.
    So they married one another, and that was the fine wedding they had,
and if I were to be there then, I would not be here now; but I heard
it from a birdeen that there was neither cark nor care, sickness nor
sorrow, mishap nor misfortune on them till the hour of their death,
and may the same be with me, and with us all!

The Field of Boliauns
*
    One fine day in harvest—it was indeed Lady-day in harvest, that
everybody knows to be one of the greatest holidays in the year—Tom
Fitzpatrick was taking a ramble through the ground, and went along
the sunny side of a hedge; when all of a sudden he heard a clacking
sort of noise a little before him in the hedge. "Dear me," said Tom,
"but isn't it surprising to hear the stonechatters singing so late
in the season?" So Tom stole on, going on the tops of his toes to
try if he could get a sight of what was making the noise, to see if
he was right in his guess. The noise stopped; but as Tom looked
sharply through the bushes, what should he see in a nook of the
hedge but a brown pitcher, that might hold about a gallon and a half
of liquor; and by-and-by a little wee teeny tiny bit of an old man,
with a little
motty
of a cocked hat stuck upon the top of his
head, a deeshy daushy leather apron hanging before him, pulled out a
little wooden stool, and stood up upon it, and dipped a little
piggin into the pitcher, and took out the full of it, and put it
beside the stool, and then sat down under the pitcher, and began to
work at putting a heel-piece on a bit of a brogue just fit for
himself. "Well, by the powers," said Tom to himself, "I often heard
tell of the Lepracauns, and, to tell God's truth, I never
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